Parent-Child Relationships

Google Issue Tracker supports parent-child relationships. A parent-child relationship is typically used to represent the breakdown of work within a given effort. A parent can have multiple children, and a child can have multiple parents.

The parent-child relationship has the following characteristics:

Characteristic Details
Relationship N:N
Ordering Ordering of children within a parent is supported.
Cycle detection Cyclic dependencies are prevented by the system.
Max direct children 500
Max ancestors 1000

Examples

The following graphic shows some sample parent-child relationships.

A graphic that shows some parent-child relationships

Parent-child relationships and blocking

The existing Blocking and Blocked by relationships are still supported when you use parent-child relationships. When you're combining parent-child relationships with blocking:

  • Use parent-child relationships to break down work into smaller units.
  • Use blocking and blocked by when timing and sequence are critical, and you want to provide clear indications in the UI to escalate stopped or not started work.

The following graphic shows examples of parent-child and blocking work breakdowns.

A graphic that shows examples of parent-child and blocking work breakdowns